Phoenix awarded $5.3M grant to hire 32 firefighters over next three years

By KTAR.com | September 5, 2017 at 5:24 amUPDATED: September 5, 2017 at 11:27 am

(Facebook/Phoenix Fire Department)

PHOENIX — Phoenix has been rewarded a more than $5.3 million grant that will allow the city to hire 32 new firefighters over the next three years, the department announced Friday.

The city was awarded a $5,389,627 grant from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant program, which is run by the Department of Homeland Security.

The grant program is designed to help fire departments “increase or maintain the number of ‘front line’ firefighters to help communities meet industry minimum staffing standards and attain 24-hour staffing,” the press release said.

The grant money will be provided over three years to pay for the new firefighters, and the city will contribute $3,350,309 as part of a “matching share cost,” the department said in a press release.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton called the grant “vitally important” and said it will allow the city to “keep adequate staffing levels” at 58 fire stations across the city.

Phoenix Fire Chief Kara Kalkbrenner also praised the grant, calling it a “victory” for Phoenix that will allow firefighters to be put “on the street which results in a safer community.”

The grant is the seventh of its kind that the city has received since 2010, representing a combined value of $43,504,713 that has allowed the Phoenix Fire Department to hire 180 firefighters.